Stretch Films/Summary
Background Stretch Films is a production company that was founded in 1991 by John R. Dilworth. It was best known for Courage the Cowardly Dog on Cartoon Network. 1st Logo (1993) Nicknames: "The Mouth", "The Smiling Mouth" Logo: Against a black background we see a mouth smiling. Above and below the mouth respectively is "STRETCH FILMS" in a grungy font with the TM symbol next to "FILMS". FX/SFX: None. Music/Sounds: The ending theme of the short. Availability: Extinct. Seen on Smart Talk with Raisin, which was shown on'' Liquid Television'' on MTV. The short was included on the out of print Wet-Shorts The Best of Liquid Television DVD. Scare Factor: None. 2nd Logo (1994) Nicknames: "The Mouth II", "The Smiling Mouth II" Logo: We see a smiling mouth that shows snaggly teeth. Each tooth contains "Stretch Fims" letter-by-letter. Above the mouth is a nose, and hair beards on the left and right of it respectively. Under the logo is "Presents". FX/SFX: None. Music/Sounds: The opening music to The Dirdy Birdy. Availability: Seen on The Dirdy Birdy. Scare Factor: None . 3rd Logo (July 1, 1995) Nicknames: "The Mouth III", "The Smiling Mouth III" Logo: Against a black background, we see a smiling mouth sticking its tongue out, with "Stretch Films" in a similar font from before, on each tooth letter-by-letter. FX/SFX: None. Music/Sounds: None. Availability: Seen only on the Courage the Cowardly Dog pilot, The Chicken from Outer Space, which is gone on What A Cartoon! Show reruns. Scare Factor: None. 4th Logo (1996) Nicknames: "The Mouth IV", "The Smiling Mouth IV" Logo: Against a black background, we see the smiling mouth from before once again, except it doesn't stick its tongue out. "Stretch Films" is on each tooth letter-by-letter in a similar font from before, along with a dark blue outline. Under the logo is "Presents." FX/SFX: None. Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the short. Availability: Seen on Noodles and Nedd. Scare Factor: None. But it is not great to the next logo... 5th Logo (August 22, 1998-November 22, 2002, 2005- ) Nicknames: "The Mouth V", "The Smiling Mouth V", "The Laughing Mouth", "The Laughing Mouth of Doom," "Banana Man" (for the rare variant). Logo: On a black background, we see a crudely drawn smiling mouth in white, with "INC." below it. The mouth then laughs, revealing several snaggly teeth with a letter on each one; the letters "S", "t", "r", "e", "t", "c", and "h" are on the top row while "F", "i", "L", "m", and "s", are on the bottom row. A TM bug appears when the mouth stops laughing. The whole thing looks very similar to the previous logos. Variants: *On the 1998 short Hector the Get Over Cat, the logo is still and takes place on a white background. Plus, "INC." is bigger. *On some episodes of Courage the Cowardly Dog, there is a variant where it shows a man (John R. Dilworth) dancing with a banana in his ears on a blue background with orange-yellow radial gradient polka dots. In the top left corner is the Stretch Films logo. The mouth isn't seen laughing, but can still be heard. *On the 2011 short Bunny Bashing, the mouth is smaller and there is a URL address below it. Trivia: The "banana man" variant (without the logo) was seen on Catch of the Day! and was also seen in black and white on the Courage the Cowardly Dog episodes "Little Muriel" and "Courage the Fly". FX/SFX: The laughing mouth. For the "banana man" variant, the man dancing (likely using stop motion animation). Music/Sounds: The mouth laughing (in a high-pitched British-esque accent). For the white background variant, it's silent. Music/Sounds Variant: On the 1999 short, Catch of the Day!, the ending theme plays over the logo, with the laughing intact. Availability: Common. The white background version is seen on the 1998 short Hector the Get Over Cat, which was seen on the Nickelodeon TV special The Toons From Planet Orange. The standard version was found on Catch of the Day! ''and was seen on reruns of ''Courage the Cowardly Dog on Cartoon Network and Boomerang. However, split-screen airings of said show replace the Stretch Films logo with the Cartoon Network logo, although both logos appear on iTunes prints of said show. The "banana man" variant is harder to come across, and was last seen on some Courage the Cowardly Dog episodes. The Season 1 DVD release of the show has the logo intact however. Scare Factor: *Original Version: Low (bordering on high) to nightmare. The extremely creepy mouth, dark background, and jarring appearance will scare a lot. *White Background Variant: Minimal. The mouth is still creepy looking. *Banana Man Variant: Medium. The choppy animation, overall creepy subject matter, and jarring appearance will scare a lot, especially for those who are expecting the normal logo and immediately wind up with this. 6th Logo (2001) Nicknames: "The Mouth VI", "The Smiling Mouth VI" Logo: Against a white background, we see the same logo from before, except the teeth on the mouth are colored with purple and pink on the top and bottom rows respectively. Under the logo is a copyright notice, which is a little off-centered. FX/SFX: None. Music/Sounds: The ending theme of the short. Availability: Seen on The Mousochist. Scare Factor: Medium. The mouth still looks creepy, though an OK logo. 7th Logo (2009) Logo: Against a black background, we see a light blue/brown parrot holding a pencil on its mouth. The parrot snaps the pencil in two with its beak. Then a pumpkin (with a face drawn on it) falls on the parrot. A speech bubble (representing the parrot talking) appears next to the pumpkin that says "OW!" During the entire animation, there is a URL address for the company and a copyright notice under the URL address, which are both centered. FX/SFX/Cheesy Factor: All of the animation, which looks pretty simple (although this may be intentional). Music/Sounds: The ending theme of the short, with a snapping sound for when the pencil breaks, and a thump sound for when the pumpkin falls on the bird. Availability: Seen on the 2009 short Rinky Dink. Scare Factor: None. Some people might actually find the logo funny.